Innate
by evelynsgrave84
Summary: Veronica is forced to deal with the aftermath of the kiss, whether she wants to or not. Oneshot. LV. Important author's note up!


Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Veronica Mars. I was not blessed with Rob Thomas's talents or creativity.

Author's Note: I pretty much wrote the fic at 2 a.m. in the morning, seeing as THAT scene would simply not leave my head. it didn't really help either that i watched it oh, only about 10-15 times! anyhow, on to the fic, andremember,I wrote it at 2 a.m.

_I'm never getting married, and I don't believe in love._

_Truer words have never been spoken, mused Veronica Mars. And yet, ……_

And yet, here she was, the self-proclaimed social pariah of Neptune High, oscillating somewhere between semi-consciousness and insomnia. It seemed to lean more heavily towards the insomnia part, as Veronica had been futilely tracing imaginary patterns on her ceiling wall for the last hour or so.

The young sleuth ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "It was just a damn kiss!" she groaned.

It was quite ironic – the content of her words. Her tone casually implied it as a simple event, and not one out of the ordinary. Her mind, however, failed to fully accept that notion. Partly, because it wasn't the kiss that had her up in the prior hours of dawn. Rather, it was the face that had bestowed the kiss. A face that brought about constant annoyance as it recently did with intrigue.

_Logan Echolls_, thought Veronica. _Of all the people to snog on, and I chose the psychotic boyfriend of my best friend_.

Worse, the guilt didn't surface quite as strongly afterwards as she feared, or rather hoped. The moment had been too sudden and particularly too urgent at the time to process. Still, the awkwardness of the situation hadn't disappeared. And she was pretty sure it wouldn't disappear either after facing him, intentional or not.

* * *

The following day, their interaction had progressively gone from awkward to extremely uncomfortable. Their one momentary eye contact in Journalism had provided the only subtle hint of the previous day's event. The pair made no efforts to publicly acknowledge each other, nor voluntarily approach the subject. They simply went about the day, following daily routine.

If Veronica Mars had naively been hoping to delay any interaction, fate did not sadly contend with her wishes. The whole scene had pretty much played like the clichéd moments in romantic comedies: girl was leaving, girl accidentally bumped into the boy, girl dropped folder, spattering about papers in the process, boy helped pick up the papers only to have his hand in brief contact with the girl's……

"Are we going to channel _Moonlighting_ the whole way?" joked Logan.

"I'm not exactly keen on heights," she replied, as she tucked away the last loose sheet.

"Hey, the view wouldn't be all too bad," he grinned suggestively.

Veronica offered no response, but her slightly flushed face clearly betrayed some of her thoughts. Just as quickly, the friendly banter had settled into silent awkwardness. Even more embarrassingly, Veronica for once couldn't bring herself to face Logan Echolls.

_When the hell did I suddenly become thirteen again_? she cursed inwardly. _This was so much easier when he was a jackass._

Veronica decided to break the monotony. "I have to go," she said rather forcedly.

But before she could make her rapid escape, Logan reached out and firmly held the school door shut. His usual air of cockiness was replaced with one of intense seriousness, a trait even reaching to his eyes.

"I'm sorry, were you expecting a 'thank you' as well," Veronica spoke in a mix of false sweetness and sarcasm. "Thank you Logan, for executing your undeniable strength."

The anticipated jibe never came. He simply stood there, uncharacteristically calm and intentional. If more than anything, his behavior was making her uncharacteristically nervous and unexpectedly breathless. "I'm not looking for that," Logan said quietly.

"What are you looking for then?" she managed.

"An explanation."

Veronica exhaled harshly. "If it's about Duncan, I can't help you on that," she replied flatly. "I don't know where he is."

Her tone softened a bit, however, as the familiar concern began to etch on Logan's face. "Look, I'm worried about him too. I'll look into it and let know what I find," she promised.

Still, the door refused to budge. "Not the kind of explanation I was looking for, Nancy Drew," Logan said firmly.

By now, the sleuth was attempting (rather unsuccessfully) to contain her annoyance. Veronica had hardly ever backed down from a challenge, as far as she could remember. At the same time, her keen observations told her that the 09er wouldn't budge till hell froze over. Besides,…..his eyes somehow refused to release its hold over hers.

"Logan, I'm on assignment right now," Veronica tried again. "Let's just …. deal with it later."

"From a feminine perspective, 'later' either means never or in eternity," Logan commented wryly. "C'mon, Ronnie, you're an upfront person," Logan gave his trademark smirk. "You _like_ uncovering the truth – no, you're _obsessed_ with uncovering the truth. So why don't we just see if there's something more to yesterday than what you're making it out to be?"

"What I'm making it out to be was – no, _is_ a mistake," she snapped. "Alright! That was all it was!"

Unfortunately, her words appeared to have an opposite effect as Logan's smirk became even more pronounced. His eyes though took on an oddly furtive and penetrative look. Once again, Veronica felt reluctantly drawn to its depth. Her breathing unnoticeably grew shallower with the passing moments. For the time, any sign of discomfort between the two had faded and was replaced instead with an intangible attraction.

The connection severed when Veronica blinked determinedly. "Look," she breathed deeply, "it just got out of context. I wanted to thank you for your rescue, and I did. You just interpreted it differently and got the wrong impression."

"You didn't seem mind the _wrong impression_," Logan snorted.

Veronica bit her mouth to fight back a retort. Her growing agitation must have been very evident, because Logan's expression softened slightly. "I didn't mind it either," he confessed. "It was ….nice."

"As nice as it was with Lily?" Veronica attacked.

She felt a primal satisfaction followed by guilt and slight shame when her words effectively struck him. The mixed display of hurt, anger, guilt, and disbelief on his face gave enough indication of that. His grip on the door handle slowly loosened.

"I'm not Lily, Logan," she said quietly, with a hint of sadness. Veronica released another shaky breath. "I'm grateful that you came to the motel in time – even if part of it was due to guilt over Lily."

For once, Logan was clearly at a loss for words. But this time, the silence fueled Veronica to press on. "I think," she surmised, "we were both caught up in the moment at the wrong time." "You unconsciously saw me as Lily, and I just simply went along with it," she lied, fighting back the surfacing tears.

Had it not been for her pride and resolve, Veronica probably would not have exited in her usual proud and stoic manner. Truth be told, the inner turmoil was very much tearing her in unsettling and unexpected ways that she had never imagined possible from a guy like Logan Echolls.

Logan, thankfully, remained behind, confused and yet unusually shattered. Veronica never looked back even once on her way to her car. Still, she was very much aware that a certain pair of brooding eyes had never left her.

"I wasn't kissing Lilly, you know," murmured Logan, as Veronica drove off.

Postnote: yeah, the Moonlighting reference is to a particular scene where Cybill Shephard's character was climbing against a building wall while Bruce Willis's character was enjoying the view (her). Honestly, I have never really watched the show, but i thought since Veronica Mars has a lot of 80's pop reference, why not? Also, the introduction line is actually Rob Thomas's original line opener into the series. It's referenced in his interview in the TwoP forum.


End file.
